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Black Cat defender eyeing game time on return from injury

Date published: Tuesday 8th August 2017 9:46

Sunderland defender Bryan Oviedo is closing in on a return from the calf injury which ruled him out of Costa Rica’s CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign.The 27-year-old damaged a muscle in the run up to the competition last month and missed the Black Cats’ opening Sky Bet Championship fixture against Derby on Friday evening.

However, he is back in training and while he is likely to sit out Thursday night’s Carabao Cup trip to Bury, he could line up for the club’s under-23s against Tottenham the following evening.

Manager Simon Grayson said: “I would think he’s more likely to train all week. There is an under-23 game on Friday that he might be more involved in just to get some game time.”

Long-term absentees Duncan Watmore and Paddy McNair are also progressing well in their recovery from knee ligament injuries and are targeting returns after the international break, while Jack Rodwell and Josh Maja too are are on the mend.

Grayson said: “Watmore and McNair are making good progress; Rodwell has been training again for the last three or four days.”Maja has not quite recovered from his knee injury, but he’s making good progress, so it won’t be too long before he is back with us.”